Up close with Phoebe Ryan | More photos + videos from the meet and greet

You may (or may not) have heard that American indie-electro pop singer and songwriter Phoebe Ryan recently came to the Philippines for a New Year's Celebration party. Phoebe is known for her angelic voice and catchy tunes "Mine", "Dead", her mashup of R. Kelly's "Ignition" and Miguel's "Do You", and her single with The Chainsmokers' "All We Know". Prior to the event, I was given the once in a lifetime chance to meet her personally, thanks to the people from Ivory Music Philippines. I already posted about the 26 Things I Learned While Hanging Out with Phoebe Ryan in Manila—the article I wrote for AsiaLive365, but now I'll be sharing more about my meet and greet with Phoebe Ryan. Expect new photos, trivia about Phoebe, videos and more so read on.

Jacksonville-born, Los Angeles-based band Yellowcard was formed exactly two decades ago this year. Most 00’s kids who’ve gone through an emo phase (or ever watched MTV, really) would recognize at least one of their bright-eyed anthems or mellow, heartrending tracks.

Ever since their major label debut with Ocean Avenue in 2003, Yellowcard toured rigorously over the next few years. Although the band went through a hiatus between 2008 and 2010, it didn’t take long before fans could rejoice in their return, critically-acclaimed WhenYou’re Through Thinking, Say Yes, succeeded by two more records and a we-didn’t-know-we-needed-it acoustic album back-to-back.

However, to fans’ shock and dismay, Yellowcard announced in June 2016 they’re breaking up after a final tour, which, thankfully, Asia gets to be part of. So without further ado, here’s a 10-GIF guide to Yellowcard’s The Final World Your.

A Conversation with Phoebe Ryan | 26 Things I Learned While Hanging Out with Phoebe Ryan in Manila

Although the New Year’s Event she headlined in is over more than a week ago, but I still couldn’t believe I got to meet this amazing person. The best part is, the people who were at the Eastwood Mall got to watch her perform her songs live. What a way to celebrate and start 2017, right? Right.

Calling all fans and followers of Yellowcard! You can win TWO tickets to watch Yellowcard on their last show here in Manila, Philippines courtesy of AsiaLive365! Join this giveaway and you might get to scream your lungs out to fan favorites, “Ocean Avenue”, “Only One”, and “Lights and Sounds”! Know more about this once in a lifetime chance by reading through this post...

The long wait is finally over for us, Wanderbuddies! After weeks of
speculation, we finally have the names of the artists who are completing
Wanderland Music & Arts Festival 2017 lineup.

If by any chance, you’re just finding out about Wanderland now, allow us to fill you with the deets. Wanderland Music & Arts Festival is,
as the name suggests, is an event dedicated to music and the arts.
Since the conception in 2013, it’s never failed to bring us good music,
amazing performers and unique themes every year.

It’s not that we’re over his powerhouse singles like “Your Body is a Wonderland”, “Back to You”, “Gravity” and “Daughters”.

It’s just that, like from many solid performers, you can’t help wanting more of John Mayer’s talent. It’s been over two years since we
last heard new music from the singer-songwriter and producer (that’s a
cover of Beyoncé’s “XO”); and three years since the release of Paradise Valley, his countrified sixth studio album.

It was a few hours before the end of October when all of a sudden, The Vamps was all over my news feed. Again.

Truthfully, my initial reaction was maybe Filipino fans were still not over guitarist James McVey’s posting a throwback photo of him and the exquisite Liza Soberano, a Filipina-American model, and actress. But upon skimming through all those posts, I realized I was wrong. It turned out the British pop band had announced they were coming back to the Philippines for the third time.

So the past few days have really been busy as heck, but I'm not complaining because I, myself, wanted it. Recently, I became a Writer/Contributor for AsiaLive365, a news/media website dedicated to music and events, as its name suggests. It is truly an achievement for me to be able to still do what I love: music, events, and writing, along with my full-time corporate job. With that, allow me to repost my articles here every now and then which is originally posted at and written for AsiaLive365. Let's start with 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Miss Neverland Manila 2016.

It's been exactly 2 months now since I last posted in this now-updated blog. So for my "comeback" post (LOL), let's talk about the band Passion Pit.I don't know about you if you haven't even heard of the song "Carried Away" or "Take A Walk" in your entire life. But for the past weeks, it's been part of my playlist in preparation for the band's first ever concert here in the Philippines, that was supposed to happen on August 13, 2015, at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

October 27th this year, Taylor Swift released yet another album. Contrary to what other people think (that Taylor Swift isn't country but pop), she has finally gone pop "officially" with her latest and first official pop album, 1989 which is the year that she was born. I have always liked Taylor Swift because of her music--not minding whether she's country or pop because whatever, as long as it's good, I don't eff care what she or the people call her music.

Being a Spotify premium subscriber and user, I make sure to explore all new and good musicians out there from my preferred genres: indie, alternative, electropop, hipster, and all those feel-good songs. I also make sure to create my own playlists, so that I won't have to manually put every song I like on my iPod. Through Spotify premium, I came across this track I fell in love immediately upon hearing. Thought it's one of Taylor Swift's songs from her new album The 1989, but when I listened well, it sounded like Ellie Goulding. Odd. So when I checked the artist, I noticed that it's a new name--one I've never heard or saw before--"LIGHTS".

I have always loved the songs Forever 21 plays on their stores--who doesn't?? They play electronic, retro, vintage, feel-good and indie pop--which is my thing! That's one of many reasons why I love shopping at that store. Anyway, going back to the artist, her song was one of the songs included in that playlist. When I heard it, I immediately felt the need to groove to it--but resisted, because I was at work when I heard it. Won't prolong the backstory behind this artist, so yeah, she's Betty Who! Betty? Who? Yep, you read that right--it's Betty Who.

Lately, I have been much into Indie music with that electro-synthpop touch and right now, the bands I am currently loving is, of course, number one on my list is The 1975 (which I got to meet and hug, BTW!!! Will post the details soon), Chvrches, Capital Cities (will blog about this soon!), The Naked and The Famous, among others.

It’s been what, years of not typing words (don’t get me wrong, I type a lot of words every day on my mobile phone, iPod and computer at work), expressing what I’m feeling and all those nitty gritty stuff in my life into the cyberspace that I’d like to think is as peaceful as having journal to write to.